Let's have a history lesson. Before the writer's strike shut down Hollywood for several months, the creators of the television show Moonlight put the finishing touches on what could have been the season finale of Moonlight. For that matter, since there was talk that the strike could have stalled any future programming, The Mortal Cure could have proven to be the last episode of Moonlight ever. Perish the thought.

So before the strike lines formed up, the creators of Moonlight were determined to send their show into hiatus with a bang. Accordingly, the plot was chock full of action, suspense, twists and turns.

Since this reviewer needs a map to keep up, I'll recap the show by plot, rather than in order.

Beth, still in mourning over Saint Josh, is openly snubbing Mick for not saving her boyfriend the vampire way.

Instead of talking things out, Beth copes by making her watery way through Josh's things. I assume that he has no living relatives, since she was named the recipient of his death benefits. While going through his planner, she finds another woman's name and number, and automatically assumes the worst.

She keeps Josh's dinner date with the woman, only to find that he was meeting a jeweler. This was really a head-scratching moment to me. I mean, who has dinner with their jeweler? The woman has a ring with a stone that belonged to Josh's grandmother. She gives it to Beth and informs her that Josh had been planning to propose to her.

Beth immediately goes to see Mick. She confides in him about Josh's ring and admits that she isn't sure she would have said yes. Before they can explore her feelings, Coraline shows up and Beth takes off. Later, at Josh's funeral, Beth is wearing his ring. Perhaps as a sign that she's not yet ready to move on.

Switching story lines, Mick is hurting under Beth's cold shoulder and doggedly pursuing Coraline and the cure. At the same time, he discovers that a very old vampire named Lance with a very black eye was also seeking Coraline. Too bad he didn't have an eye patch. A vampire pirate would have been awesome. I'm just sayin'.

Through hospital footage, he finds that an old friend of Coraline's named Cynthia was responsible for smuggling her out of the hospital. By tracing Cynthia's background, he finds that she was experimenting with genetics and importing organic material from France. He locates the lab, only to find a now-vampire-again Coraline working on some kind of genetic experiments involving monkeys, orchids and possibly the Rambaldi formula from Alias.

Before Mick can confront his ex-wife, Lance shows up. He and Coraline have a conversation in which he hints that vampires have experimented with the compound before. And that the experiments didn't end well. Which is why he's trying to stop her.

Mick steps in to confront Lance and in the altercation, the older vampire's hand is burned. However he recovers. Which makes me think that maybe that's why Coraline survived the fire.

Coraline escapes, and Mick calls the cleaners to deal with the lab. They confirm to Mick that they've been taking away bagged vampire bodies from that location for a while now.

Which makes me wonder what it is about the compound that is so deadly to vampires? Of course, Mick doesn't stop to consider this. He's thinking with his downstairs brain (which seems to be set on mortality, not sex.).

When he goes home, Beth is there, as I mentioned above. But Coraline shows up and Beth takes off. Mick's ex-wife has the compound with her, and explains that it's not really a cure, but it temporarily masks the vampire traits.

Then she releases the exposition fairy, who explains to Mick that vampire aristocrats developed the compound during the French revolution to hide their presence from vampire hunters. Also? The French Revolution? All about vampire hunting. I'm sure the over 40,000 people killed during the revolution are comforted by the thought. However, Dylan Meconis had it right.

Moving right along, Coraline gives Mick the cure, and the two of them leave his apartment.

Once outside, they're confronted by Lance. At this point, Mick finds out a few things that Coraline neglected to tell him. Firstly, she wasn't just a courtesan: she was one of the vampire aristos who developed the cure. (which makes me think that maybe that brand/tattoo on her shoulder might have actually have come from a point in the revolution when Coraline was actually branded as a criminal, and that the writers weren't playing as fast and loose with history as I originally thought. Then again, they've basically said that Robespierre was the original Van Helsing, so maybe not.) Secondly, she was a relative of Louis XVI, who was a vampire. Thirdly, she's in big trouble, as her brother Lance is there to take her home, where she's to be punished for creating Mick without the family's permission, as well as stealing the compound.

Coraline agrees to return home with Lance, as long as he doesn't hurt Mick. He does however welcome Mick to the family.

A battered Mick goes to Josh's funeral to show off his shiny mortality to Beth, only to find her in deep mourning, with Josh's ring on her hand.

Even with all that going on, I missed a thing or two in my summary. Josef makes an appearance and warns Mick to stay away from Lance. Apparently, there are bad vampires that even Josef won't go near. Also fun was Mick's hacker friend Logan. Who would rather play guitar hero and be a sloth for the rest of his undead life.

The good:

This was a wonderfully twisty episode. The creators were gearing up for an emotional punch that would leave audiences clamoring for a second season, if the writer's strike resolved itself in time.

The bad:

There were more than a few dangling plot threads. If there hadn't been more episodes in this season, I would have been a very unhappy camper.

The questions:

What is the compound? Who is Coraline so afraid of? Where did her brother take her? Is there a nasty side effect to the compound? Why did all those rogue vampires die? Is there any significance to the fact that she and Beth share the same rare blood type?

The verdict: This was a good payoff for the slow buildup of season one. I'm glad I stuck through the slow initial episodes to reach this point.

And also? Monkeys.

As a side note, I'd like to thank my personal editors, Katie Caughill and Casey Shoemaker for marathon editing over the past couple of days while I caught up with my reviewing duties for the show. You ladies are miracle workers.